Rotatable support for a game board



Feb. 17, 1959 w. M. CRAWFORD, JR 2,

ROTATABLE SUPPORT FOR A GAME BOARD Filed Sept. 29, 1954 v INVENTOR ATTORNEYS I 2,873,938 ROTATABLE SUPPORT FOR A GAME BOARD Warren M. Crawford, Jr., Miami, Fla., assignor to Production and Marketing Company, Newtown, Conn., a partnership Application September 29, 1954, Serial No. 459,129

5 Claims. (Cl. 248349) This invention relates to a support for a game board or the like, and more particularly to a support for a game board which it is desirable to rotate during play such as a board for word games, for example.

In playing a game involving words made up of various letters of the alphabet, it is necessary or desirable for the United States Patent 0 "ice board to be rotated during play so that the letters making up the words appear in the proper position with respect to each of the players in turn. It has been proposed to mount orsupport the board upon a flat supporting member rotatably mounted upon a base so that the basemay rest upon a table or other supportand the supporting member for the board rotate with respect to the base.

This, however, requires a shaft or pivot member-upon which the support is mounted, which pivot member must be rotatably supported from the base in upright position so that there will be no appreciable tipping of the support and so that it will rotate easily. It has been found that such devices are relatively expensive on account of the requirements of their manufacture.

It is contemplated by the present invention to provide a support for a board or the like, which support may rest upon a table or other surface and rotate easily upon such a surface about a point substantially at the center of the support. It has been foundthat this result may be accomplished by the provision of a supporting member having a slight bulge or protuberance upon its lower surface substantially at its central portion so that the support will rest upon this bulge or protuberance and turn or rotate upon it as a pivot, the remainder of the support being slightly spaced from the table or other surface.

Such a device as is shown and described herein may be made very inexpensively and at the same time will function in' a satisfactory manner. It will be understood that the bulge or protuberance may project only to a slight extent from the remainder of the lower surface of the support so that the edges of the latter will be close to the table surface in order that excessive tipping of the support about its central pivot will be avoided.

One object of the invention is to provide a new and improved support for a game board or the like.

A further object of the invention is to provide a support for a game board or the like which may be inexpensive to manufacture and at the same time will function satisfactorily so that it may be rotated about its central point if desired.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a support for a game board which will be provided with a centrally disposed bulge or protuberance on its lower surface whereby the support may rest upon this protuberance upon a table or supporting surface and rotate thereupon with the remainder of the under surface of the support spaced above the table.

To these and other ends the invention consists in the novel features and combinations of parts to be hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a support for a game 2,873,938 Patented Feb". 17, 1959 2 board orthe likeembodying the invention showing a portion of a game board resting upon the support;

Fig. 2 is a bottom plan view of the support;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view on line 3'-3.of Fig. 2; and- Fig. 4 is a sectional view similar to Fig. 3 but showing a modified form of the invention.

To illustrate a preferred embodiment of the invention there is shown a support comprising a substantially. rectangular or square member 10 having an upper flat surface 11 upon which may rest a game board 12 shown in fragmentary form in Fig. 1.

As previously stated, it is desirable that the support be rotated and to this end it is so constructed that a bulge or protuberance is provided at the undersurface thereof at substantially the central portion of the support. To this end, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, the support may coniprise an upper ply 1-3 and a lower ply 14; These two'plies of material are coextensive and are secured togetherat the four-edges, as shown at 15, in any suitable manner such as being cemented, for example. They can, of course, be tacked if desired.

While-these members 13 and 14 are secured together at their edges, they are unsecured between the edges, and a brad-or pin 16 is driven into the lower surface of the upper ply 13 at substantially the central portion thereof, the pinv being provided with a head. 17 which rests upon the upper surface of the lower ply14 and holds it in spaced relation to the upper ply.

When the lower ply 14 of the support-is at its central portion, as shown in Fig. 3, the lower surface of the support is roughly in the form of a four-sided pyramid, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. That is to say, it is provided with an apex 18 from which the lower surface slopes very gently and gradually toward the four edges 15 of the support. It will, of course, be understood that the pin 16 is relatively short so that, as shown in Fig. 3, the edges 15 of the support will normally stand only a short distance above the table or other supporting surface shown by the dotted line 19.

With this construction it will be seen that the support will rotate upon its apex 18 as this will be the only part of the lower surface which will actually rest upon the table 19. Moreover, as the bulge of the lower ply of material is very slight, there will be no excessive tipping of the support about this center.-

The two plies 13 and 14 may be made from any desired material. It has been found that a very satisfactory article may be made by using a comparatively rigid material such as plywood, for example, for the upper member 13, and a more flexible material such as fiber for the lower ply 14. It will be understood, however, that fiber, cardboard or any other suitable material may be used for either of the plies. It Will, however, usually be found desirable for the upper ply to be of a more rigid material than the lower ply so that the latter will be the one which will be displaced or bulged outwardly by the spacing pin 16 and the surface of the upper ply remains flat.

In Fig. 4 of the drawings there is shown a slight modification of the invention wherein the upper and lower plies of material 13 and 14 are separated by a fiat disk or other spacing member 20 provided substantially centrally of the support. Otherwise the construction shown in Fig. 4 is the same as that shown in Figs. 1 to 3 of the drawings. The disk 20 may, of course, be made of any suitable material such as fiber or cardboard and its thickness will be such as will be calculated to space the lower ply 13 from the upper ply 14 to the desired extent.

While there is shown and described a preferred embodiment of the invention, it will be understood that it is not to be limited to all of the details shown, but is capable of modification and variation within the spirit of the invention and within the scope of the claims.

held outwardly 3 What I claim is:

1. A support of the lazy susan type for game boards or the like adapted to be freely rotatable on a flat relatively hard surface without auxiliary bearing support and comprising a thin laminar plate-like member having a substantially flat continuous uninterrupted upper surface and an imperforate lower surface which in its entirety is in the general configuration of an extremely shallow inverted pyramid, the apex portion being centrally disposed with respect to the member and serving as a zone of balanced support for said member with the peripheral portions spaced only slightly upwardly thereof, whereby the member may freely rotate about said central apex portion, the thinness of the whole ensuring such a negligible tilting of the member as to preclude accidental sliding displacement of any playing pieces which may be placed upon a supported game board.

2. A support of the lazy susan type for game boards or the like adapted to be freely rotatable on a flat relatively hard surface without auxiliary bearing support and comprising a thin laminar plate-like member having a substantially flat continuous uninterrupted upper surface and a slightly bulged lower surface which converges from its margins downwardly to an apex central portion, which portion serves as a zone of balanced support for said member with the peripheral portions spaced only slightly upwardly thereof, whereby the member may freely rotate about said central apex portion, the shallowness of the whole device ensuring such a negligible tilting of the memdimensions, means securing the elements together continuously around their peripheral edge portions only, the rigidity of the material of which the two sheet elements are made together being of sufiicient stiffness as to make the member self-supporting without collapse, a short spacing element inserted between the sheet elements at approximately the central portion of the member to effect such slight downward bulging of the lower sheet element to provide said apex portion.

3. The support as set forth in claim 2 in which the upper sheet element is substantially rigid, While the lower sheet element is flexible, so that it alone is bulged by the interposition of the spacing element.

4. The support as set forth in claim 2 in which said spacing element is in the form of a thin shim.

5. The support as set forth in claim 2 in which the said spacing element is in the form of a headed pin having its head abutting the lower sheet element at said apex portion and the other end of the pin entering a recess or socket in said upper sheet element.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 729,619 Luensmann June 2, 1903 1,739,588 Greene Dec. 17, 1929 1,879,496 Reussenzehn Sept. 27, 1932 2,277,752 Frey Mar. 31, 1942 2,369,944 Cahners Feb. 20, 1945 2,459,017 Crew Jan. 11, 1949 2,470,165 Hartzler May 17, 1949 2,686,647 Fitch Aug. 17, 1954 

